#RTWsoon: Sara Grazia

Sara, based in the UK, turned 30 this year and has been living with her partner for three years. She has spent the past five years in her current job and realised she wants out of the rat race and that life is going past far too fast for her liking.

With Costa Rica, Peru and Chile already under her travel belt she has decided now is the time to fulfil the ambition of a lifetime and visit the rest of Central and South America.

Where are you going and for how long?
Originally the plan had always been just to do Central and South America but recently we started looking into potentially emigrating to New Zealand and as such decided a bit of a round the world travel would inevitably be a smarter choice for combining the two.

Originally we had planned to go for a total of six months but then realised there are just too many places we really want to see and as such we expanded our route to a current eight months, although I think it may just end up being the case that we travel until the money runs or we find a new life….. Yes i forgot to mention that i am also not adverse to the idea of possibly relocating to a whole new country for a new life! If the right opportunity presents itself during our voyage then we are open to that possibility!

The route as it stands is overland Mexico to Costa Rica, then overland Venezuela to Chile with almost everything in between, then across to New Zealand, then Fiji, then Australia, Bali and then Singapore….we went for the RTW ticket option as it seemed to offer the most flexibility for the best price.

Have you told the boss yet?
Er, no, not yet as i have no idea as to whether or not i will be coming back and as such don’t want to close the door fully. I have however enquired as to the possibility of a sabbatical from HR but unfortunately it is not something offered by the company, so have been trying to think of a good way to approach it with my boss and for a way to maybe be able to convince them into allowing me a career break instead of me leaving…. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome I guess, as planning to do it at the end of the month….wish me luck.

Oh and neither does his work place know yet…

Planned to death or casual meander?
Bit of a mix really, we have planned the key places we want see per country and sort of planned a route which am sure is more a guideline than anything else! Although my partner would argue otherwise as he likes to plan and I believe he has actually mapped out our route? Anyway I forgive him as he is new to this….bless him.

What do friends and family think about this?
His family have no clue as yet….another hurdle to overcome as they are a tad on the old fashioned side in terms of a job should not be left and you should use the money to buy a house and have a family and not waste it on travelling the world for god’s sake!

As for my family they know me, have had to endure my wanderings in the past although much shorter and although think am mad and don’t get why I would possibly want to leave a nice job and sell my possessions they know better than to try and convince me otherwise…. have always had a thing for disappearing off somewhere so it shouldn’t be too new for them.

Friends are coping better but still range from “oh my god you will be in hostels for months” shock horror to “you are so lucky i wish i could do that”

Why now?
It’s the right time. Have gained my work experience we have no real ties and no real debts so it seems perfect before we settle down somewhere and get all traditional!

How much is it going to cost and how are you financing the trip?
Er, not sure…we have a budget we think will work and are overbudgetting according to guide books etc but guess we’ll see. The plan is a budget per country and when that finishes we move on to the next, that way am thinking we should be able to get to see all the countries rather than run out ahead of schedule.

Financing through sale of personal belongings. Almost everything including cars etc and saving… hopefully hit budget before we go. I am TEFL qualified so that could be a backup option plus my partner is a web developer so he speaks a universal language that might get some work on the way.

Also plan to finance a lot of internal flights with air miles from previous flights and think we currently have three to four free flights covered by them, which is always nice!

Any volunteer work plans?
Potentially as we want to go into the Amazon jungle and have heard about some volunteer projects there but again it is not a matter of being not adverse to the idea but rather it is just not planned into the trip as not sure what’s out there.

What or where are you most looking forward to?
Everything and everywhere….

My main thing is to be able to go back down to first gear again and really enjoy my surroundings without being hurried or being on a timescale. Galapagos should be a good unique experience but I am partial to some jungle!

Contents

Contents

About Us

The Working Travellers are Shane Donovan and Deirdre Higgins, who travel the world cheaply and look for ways you can too. More on gap years, career breaks and working abroad can be found via our sites below or from our main site, PAYAway.